Fruit Talk

(John 15:2 KJV)  Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit.

(Proverbs 25 also read)

As I was reading this today it got me to wondering what it means to “bear” (5342) “fruit” (2590).  I have generally looked at this in terms of witnessing and changing the world around me.  This morning it occurred to me that this is the same word that Paul used when he wrote about the fruit of the Spirit.  

On one level this is liberating because it means that I can be in Christ without doing personal evangelism.  On another level this is a call to service because it means that we should be demonstrating the fruit of the Spirit everywhere we go.  One of the passages of scripture that is often on my mind and tongue is I Corinthians 13.  There are a lot of parallels between the definition of love and the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5:22-3.  

So?  Fruit is the natural outgrowth of fertilized buds.  I think that the point is if we are on the vine, in contact with Jesus, it will show up in our lives in some way.  We may be blessed with seeing people move toward faith.  We should be blessed by being examples of the faith.